Synthroid dose

[Neeson]

I am currently taking synthroid with lots of side effects.  For example faster heart rate, heart palps, sleeping issues, short of breath, fatigue, aching arms and itchy scalp.  I have slowing increasing my synthroid dose currently at 37.5 daily.  My labs are:

Vitamin D 38
T3 total 0.73
T3 free 2.44
T4 free 1.31
TSH 2.47

Thoughts?  Also my heart is very sensitive to thyroid meds.

[Barb135]

Tirosint, most likely made your muscle ache worse, because you were on such a low dose, it wasn't nearly enough.  You went from 37.5 mcg synthroid to only 13 mcg Tirosint... that's only 1/3 the amount of active ingredient.  The doctor who did that wasn't very bright.  

Air hunger is usually caused from being hypo.

How/when have you been taking the WP?  Have you been taking it all at once or splitting the doses?  

Most of us taking a T3 med find that we have to split the total dose into 2 doses with one, first thing in the morning and the second around noon/early afternoon.  That keeps the Free T3 levels more stable in the blood so you don't have periods of up and down.

If you can get either of these doctors to add a small dose of T4 to the WP, to bring up your FT4 level, without tipping the scale to hyper, you might be in pretty good shape.

[Neeson]

Tirosint made my muscle ache so bad. What causes the air hunger?  I have no get up and go.

I liked the WP thyroid but if I increase the dose it will be too much T3.

Also, why do I feel the best in the evening.  I struggle all day.

Thanks.

[Neeson]

Agreed.  I have suffered enough. I don't understand why either is not concerned about my low T4.

I just don't think that straight up T4 is a great choice for me.

[Barb135]

The lowest dose of WP has only 9.25 mcg of T4 and 2.25 mcg of T3, so it's obvious that you don't need much T3 if yours jumped that much on just 2.25 mcg.  

One huge problem I see is that it never works to have more than one doctor managing the same thyroid condition.  You need to pick one of them and either stop seeing the other or stop letting her/him adjust your meds.  This is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.

I suppose if you really want to make yourself miserable so you have to start all over, you could humor them and stop the WP, but if they'd just "look" at your FT4 now, at only 1% of its range they could see that you have a thyroid problem and you aren't going to go very long on that T100 that has nothing beneficial in it, other than a little selenium.

That's a decision you have to make... I certainly wouldn't be willing to put myself through that.

[Neeson]

What drug combination do you suggest?

I was taking the  lowest dose of WP thyroid, I think one quarter.

Both doctors want me to stop the WP thyroid and use T100 for 2 weeks and get tested to see if I really have a thyroid problem.

I don't know Barb.  It is hard to find the right doctor.

[Barb135]

What dosage of WP Thyroid are you taking?  You might have faster pulse because WP has T3 in it.  The aches might also have gotten better because of the T3 in the WP.  

Your FT3 has gone from only 4% of its range back in April, to 75% of its range, now - that's from the T3 in the WP.  That's okay, as long as you can tolerate that much... But your FT4 has dropped from 58% to only 1% of its range... that isn't going to work either.

This doctor you on a roller coaster that you won't be able to maintain.